Summary
- VR games excel in immersive physics-based interactions, offering dynamic combat and realistic item interactions.
- Titles like Blade and Sorcery and Hard Bullet prioritize fun and dynamic physics simulations over realism.
- Games like Half-Life: Alyx set the benchmark for VR physics with carefully constructed interactions and immersive environments.
VR is often considered to be the most immersive and fun way to play video games. As technology improves with time, this statement only gets more and more true, as VR technology can truly immerse players into environments. This is due in part to the visuals and ability to look around the virtual environment, but other factors such as sound and tactility come into play in order to create a truly immersive and compelling virtual setting.
Related
It’s been bit of a quiet year for the virtual reality genre, but there have been a handful of VR games that are worth putting on the headset for.
One key feature of VR immersion and enjoyment is the physics systems in games. These could include the ability to grab items freely and dynamically, interact with the environment, or engage in truly dynamic physics-based combat. Physics-based VR games often lead the market and foster the biggest audiences, so any player with VR technology should know which games offer the best physics.
1
Hard Bullet
Feel Like John Wick
- Platform(s): PC
- Release Date: October 23, 2020
- Developer: GexagonVR
- Genre: Action Sandbox
Hard Bullet is a sandbox title that allows players to fight through waves of AI enemies using a range of weapons and objects. The game also features “ride mode,” a system that allows for a loose sense of progression as players aim to complete consecutive stages in order to earn money and experience. Hard Bullet relies less on realistic physics simulation, and more on the concept of fun and dynamic physics interactions.
Hard Bullet is incredibly inspired by Hong Kong action movies and other similar movies such as John Wick. Players can freely interact with enemy AI using the ragdoll system as well as pick up and use any objects as a weapon. Each gun, melee weapon, or random object has full collision and the complete freedom to be grabbed and used however the player desires.
2
Eleven Table Tennis
Just Like The Real Thing
- Platform(s): Oculus/Meta Quest, PICOXR, PC
- Release Date: 14 December 2017
- Developer: Roman Rekhler, Hamzeh Alsalhi, Oscar Vazquez
- Genre: Sports
Eleven Table Tennis is a VR title that simulates table tennis. It requires a full room-scale setup in order to facilitate the presence of a life-sized table tennis table. Players can play either PvP or PvE matches of table tennis, offering the most realistic table tennis simulation.
While simplistic, the sheer realism of the physics system in Eleven Table Tennis is what makes it stand out. Aside from the clear virtual nature and aesthetics of the game, it is mechanically indistinguishable from real table tennis. The way the ball interacts with the table and the bat is just as expected, simulating the real sport with impressive and realistic physics.
3
The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners
Killing Walkers Never Felt So Real
- Released
-
January 23, 2020
The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners is one of a few Walking Dead VR titles available. It sees players exploring a walker-infested New Orleans, interacting with characters, crafting weapons, and navigating the ever-present walker and human threats.
Related
8 VR Games To Avoid If You Get Motion Sickness
Virtual Reality newcomers beware; these VR games may be some of the medium’s best experiences, but they can also cause motion sickness.
The general physics interactions within Saints & Sinners are as to be expected from a modern VR title. Despite this, one consistent physics interaction in the game allows the player to feel truly immersed in the setting. Each walker killed with a melee weapon requires a large motion to penetrate through the brain. This is just as depicted in the show, and failing this movement often results in the weapon ending up lodged into the head of the walker. This use of physics increases the tension of melee combat tenfold.
4
Blade & Sorcery
Realistic And Immersive Melee Combat
Fighting
RPG
Shooter
Indie Games
Adventure
Simulation
- Released
-
December 11, 2018
- Developer(s)
-
Warpfrog
Blade & Sorcery is one of the most famous and beloved VR titles, offering a fun and immersive fantasy sandbox alongside a dungeon-crawling campaign. Whether learning new magic-based abilities or hacking down hordes of armed combatants, Blade & Sorcery is a fantasy simulation done perfectly.
The main draw of Blade & Sorcery is how flawlessly the physics in the game work. Anything from hurling fireballs to clashing blades is rendered just as expected. Players can find their blades getting lodged into opponents or their weapons too heavy to lift with one hand. This allows full immersion and demonstrates the pinnacle of physics-based melee combat in VR.
5
Into The Radius 2
Incredibly Impressive Item Interactions
- Platform(s): PC
- Release Date: 24 July 2024
- Developer: CM Games
- Genre: Action, Survival
Into the Radius 2 is the 2024 sequel to the 2020 game, Into the Radius. Like its predecessor, Into The Radius 2 is set amid a series of anomalies in a post-nuclear disaster. The game is clearly inspired by the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series and builds upon the previous title in almost every way, offering an advanced and immersive post-apocalyptic VR game.
Into The Radius 2 relies heavily on exploration and the collection of items. From picking up food and other menial items to looting and modifying weapons, a large part of the game is done through simple physics interactions. This is likely why these interactions have the sheer polish they do, with most items acting exactly as expected from the real world. This physics implementation creates an all-encompassing sense of immersion in even the smallest items and interactions.
6
Half-Life: Alyx
The Benchmark of VR Physics
Half-Life: Alyx is one of the most famous VR titles and one of the most highly rated Valve titles to date, taking the gaming industry by storm upon its release. It is the perfect blend of a beloved and famous intellectual property, alongside some of the best implementations of VR mechanics.
Related
Best Meta Quest VR Games With Long Single-Player Campaigns
These immersive VR games provide hours of content for players to get lost in their worlds.
Players need only play the opening portion of Half-Life: Alyx to get a sense of how carefully constructed the physics in the game is. From playing around with objects to writing on glass with a marker pen, each interaction creates an incredibly immersive and compelling feel to an already very well-constructed setting.
7
Bonelab
The Pinnacle Of VR Physics
- Released
-
September 29, 2022
Bonelab is the sequel to the beloved Boneworks by the innovative VR development studio Stress Level Zero. It is a physics sandbox featuring a light campaign but designed mostly to act as a VR base for community modding ventures. It not only acts as an incredibly compelling physics puzzle title, likely the best in the genre but also a core engine that modders can build upon.
Finding a physics system in a VR title that is more intricate and realistic than the one in Bonelab is impossible. Every single physics and item interaction is almost 1:1 with the real world, allowing players to complete the various physics puzzles in any way they can think of. This physics system is also the perfect modding base, allowing for infinite community-made possibilities that utilize excellent physics to the best of their ability.
More
8 Best Roguelike Games On PSVR2
The Roguelike genre has found a home in the VR space, and PSVR2 features a ton of excellent Roguelike games found within its virtual space.